Former President Donald Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity during a one-on-one interview on Thursday that his term was better for black Americans than at any time since Abraham Lincoln.
“Let me ask you what the demographic shift that keeps showing up in poll after poll after poll. And you mention these demographics earlier, African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, young people. That is a big part of the Democratic coalition,” Hannity began. “You’ve heard people like James Carville, like really angry, and I’ve known James, and I’ve debated James over the years; I like him. He’s crazy, but I like him. He’s a smart guy. And people like David Axelrod and Van Jones and even Maureen Dowd, powerful voices in the Democratic party, sensing that that coalition is crashing.
“I would argue that the radicalized party in the left today is nothing like the old Democratic party. They’ve become the party of coastal leads. The Republican party, especially under you, has become the party of hard-working Americans, rank and file. When you went out and you met these construction workers during your trial – ‘USA! USA!’ – that would not have happened 80 years ago that a Republican would get that response. Or when you went to New Jersey, were you surprised by the size of that crowd?” Hannity asked.
“We had 107,000 people; it’s the biggest crowd they’ve ever had in New Jersey; nobody has ever seen anything like it. But black people, African-American people are screaming toward us…” Trump began before Hannity interjected: “What do you think happened?”
“Because they had the best economy, best job numbers, and best everything during my presidency. Also, I’ve funded the Historically Black Colleges and Universities. I funded them. They were coming to Washington every year, the presidents every single year, they were coming to Washington looking for money,” Trump said.
“And I became friendly with a lot of them; they run the black colleges and universities, and they would ask, and I took care of them. I gave them long-term financing and much more money than they wanted. And they really like me, I will tell you, they really like me. No Democrat did that,” he said.
“When you look at the things that I did, criminal justice reform, I got criminal justice reform, Obama couldn’t get it, nobody could get it. I’ve done more for black people than anybody since Abraham Lincoln. And they understand it, they really do, and they have the best job numbers they’ve ever had. They had the best job numbers they’ve ever had during the Trump administration,” Trump said.
